SUMMARY There are two fields in the desktop file: X-DBUS-ServiceName X-DBUS-StartupType Here is a link that explains how they work: https://api.kde.org/frameworks/kservice/html/classKToolInvocation.html My understanding being that if X-DBUS-StartupType = Unique, then if X-DBUS-ServiceName is defined and already started, Unique will prevent it from being started again until no other instances are active. The problem being though that X-DBUS-ServiceName doesn’t appear to work. This was reported on Reddit and another user confirmed here: https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/zd7cu3/desktop_servicename_startuptype_dont_appear_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Can you please give some context on what you are trying to achieve?
What desktop file where? What's the problem?
(In reply to Nicolas Fella from comment #1) > Can you please give some context on what you are trying to achieve? I'm creating a front-end script to automate ykman processing, it runs konsole in the background. I only want 1 instance of the script to run at a time. My understanding from the doc previously mentioned, using Unique in the desktop file will accomplish this. Here is the desktop file I've created: [Desktop Entry] Comment[en_US]= Comment= Exec=/usr/bin/ykocli ykobkg GenericName[en_US]= GenericName=YkoCLI Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/ykocli.png MimeType= Name[en_US]=YkoCLI Name=YkoCLI Path= StartupNotify=true Terminal=true TerminalOptions= --background-mode --profile ykocli Type=Application Categories=Utility; X-DBUS-ServiceName=org.bitbucket.gbcox.ykocli X-DBUS-StartupType=Unique X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false X-KDE-Username= ~ However when I start using this desktop file, multiple instances are created. Maybe I'm missing something, but if you look at the reddit question I posted, another person tested this under both Wayland and X11 and reported they couldn't get it to work either.
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #2) > What desktop file where? What's the problem? Please see my reply to Nicolas Fella.
X-DBUS-ServiceName and X-DBUS-StartupType are only relevant in the context of KToolInvocation/KInit, which are deprecated/obsolete. They don't do what you expect them to do. If you want your app to have single-window behavior you'll need to implement that yourself, e.g. by using a lock file on disk that the app checks during startup
(In reply to Nicolas Fella from comment #5) > X-DBUS-ServiceName and X-DBUS-StartupType are only relevant in the context > of KToolInvocation/KInit, which are deprecated/obsolete. They don't do what > you expect them to do. > > If you want your app to have single-window behavior you'll need to implement > that yourself, e.g. by using a lock file on disk that the app checks during > startup OK, Nicolas, thank you very much for your quick reply. I'll do the lock file approach. It appears that the TerminalOptions= is also now deprecated, yet Terminal=true/false is still there. Do you know what is supposed to be used as the replacement? It appears the solution is to completely bypass the terminal option and specify the Terminal in Exec= with the "-e" option but that seems sort of hackish IMO.
> It appears that the TerminalOptions= is also now deprecated, > yet Terminal=true/false is still there. Do you know what is supposed to be > used as the replacement? It appears the solution is to completely bypass > the terminal option and specify the Terminal in Exec= with the "-e" option > but that seems sort of hackish IMO. I don't know of any replacement, but I kind of see why it was deprecated. You can't know which terminal will actually be used, so you can't know which options are available/supported.